About Me

Friday, December 2, 2011

Just a quick note to let you know that I recently did an hour-long interview for “Landminds,” an Israel National Radio program focusing on archeology and other related topics. The interview is available locations on line:

Monday, November 21, 2011

A few quick updates at what, for many of us, is becoming an increasingly busy time of year.

PODCASTI recently taped an hour-long podcast on my book with Professor Tony Gill, of the Research on Religion podcast. It’s available at: http://www.researchonreligion.org/uncategorized/mark-glickman-on-the-cairo-genizah, or on iTunes. Enjoy!

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTSBy my count, I have now given presentations on the Cairo Genizah in 11 states throughout the country. In just the past few weeks, I’ve spoken at:

In the coming months, I’m scheduled to appear at congregations in Springfield MA, Worcester MA, and at a class on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Cairo Genizah being taught at Central Washington University (Ellensburg). If you know of any groups interested in having me speak, please feel free to have them contact me at this email address or at my cell phone (425-531-0536).

A WONDERFUL GIFT IDEAHoliday time is coming, and, as you know, there’s no gift quite like the gift of Genizah. You can order books – print or audio – at the links below, or if you’d like a signed copy of the print-edition, I’d be glad to send you a copy:

$24.99 Book$3.50 Shipping$2.15 Tax (WA Only)

Send check, payable to me, to:

15030 232nd Ave. NEWoodinville, WA, 98077

That’s all for now. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and a wonderful December,

As of now, it’s most affordable on Amazon, but I think there might be a way to get it for free if you get a 30-day trial with Audible.com.

I’ll add that I had a lot of fun making the recording. For three days over the course of two weeks, I drove to Snohomish WA and sat in before a microphone in Chris Hanzsek’s sound studio to read the book. Then, Chris got to work and made the recording shine.

(For someone who talks like I do, getting sound-edited is a real treat. I went to years and years of speech therapy when I was younger, but in the end, it turns out that all I needed was Chris – he made me perfectly fluent!)

Speaking Engagements

Even though the book has been out for some time now, I am still actively working to promote it. In November alone I am currently booked for appearances in San Diego, Houston, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. If you know of a group that would be interested in having me speak, please feel free to put us in contact with one another.

Barnes & Noble

Finally, just this minute I received word that Barnes & Noble just purchased a couple hundred copies of my book for sales around the country. They should be on the shelves by next month, making the “dead-trees” version more readily available to interested readers everywhere (or everywhere where there’s a B&N that carries it, at least.

Thanks as always for your ongoing support, and best wishes for a terrific end-of-summer.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

First, some exciting news. A couple of weeks ago, the Taylor Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University announced the discovery of yet another leaf of the original Hebrew of the book of Ben Sirah. As you may know, it was Solomon Schechter’s 1896 discovery of another page of the original Hebrew of Ben Sirah that first brought the Genizah to world attention. The newly discovered fragment at Cambridge is not from the same copy as the page that Schechter first identified in 1896, but rather from another copy of the book, a page of which was discovered some time ago at a library in France.

You can find more information about this discovery – as well as some pictures of the manuscript itself – at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/fotm/january-2011/index.html.

Recent Events in Egypt

Needless to say, Egypt has been in the news lately. My sources on the ground in Cairo tell me that army soldiers have replaced the police guards at the Ben Ezra Synagogue (and at Cairo’s other synagogues, too), and that, at least for the time being, these sites are safe.

In Alexandria, on the other hand, the situation is quite different. There, the police have stopped providing security at the city’s only synagogue, and no soldiers or other government forces have arrived to replace them. Synagogue employees have stopped coming to work, and looters have destroyed most of the nearby shops. So far, the synagogue itself has not been damaged, but this is only because two devoted members of Alexandria’s Jewish community have been guarding the place on their own.

We hope and pray for the continued safety of Egypt’s Jews and it’s precious sites and treasures.

Sacred Treasure: The Adventure Continues

Word about the Cairo Genizah – not to mention the fascinating new book about it – continues to spread. Here are a few examples:

• A TV interview I did during my recent trip to Cincinnati (my tie was askew, I said “um” a lot, and the guy called me “Glick’um,” but aside from that, it went pretty well): http://www.fox19.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=5504112&h1=Rabbi+Mark+Glickman+talks+about+his+book+%27Sacred+Treasure%3A+The+Cairo+Genizah%27&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=222700&LaunchPageAdTag=Search

• A half-page review in the January 6 Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2013865258_br07sacred.html

Also, Seattle’s Jewish newspaper, the JT News, recently released its “Best of 2010” issue. For best book, readers chose To the End of the Land, by Israeli novelist David Grossman. However, the article goes on to say that another favorite of JT News readers was Sacred Treasure: The Cairo Genizah. From what I know of Mr. Grossman’s prodigious talent, I’ll gratefully accept a second place listing to his book.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

THE WAY A HISTORY BOOK SHOULD BE WRITTENSACRED TREASURE—THE CAIRO GENIZAH by Rabbi Mark Glickman, Jewish Lights, Woodstock Vt. 2010, 254 pages, $24.99

Reviewed by Rabbi Jack Riemer

What an exciting book this is! The publicity release begins “Indiana Jones meets the Da Vinci Code in an old Egyptian Synagogue”, and the book justifies the statement. If other history books were written with this kind of verse, non-professionals, and young people in particular, would read a lot more history than they do.

Most people probably have some vague idea of what a gernizah is. They know that Jews do not just throw away Holy Books. They either bury them, or stuff them into synagogue attics out of respect for the Name of God or the quotations from the Torah that they may contain.

And most people probably have a vague idea of what the Cairo Genizah was. They know that Solomon Schechter, who was at the time a reader in Rabbinics at Cambridge University, and who went on from there to become the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, went to Cairo, climbed up the ladder that led to the attic in the synagogue where the genizha was stored, and brought back to Cambridge many of the pieces of paper that he found there, and that began the field of Genizah Studies.

But that is about all that most of us know about this topic. I had no idea until I read this book that the genizah contained three hundred thousand documents, enough to keep scholars busy cataloguing and deciphering these scraps for many lifetimes. I had no idea that it contained business correspondence, love letters, hundreds of poems, both secular and religious, medical information, letters to and from Maimonides himself, and even a page from what we would later understand were the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Mark Glickman has written a page turner of a book. We follow him from Schechter to S.D. Goitein to Stefan Reif, to the scholars who are now using—and inventing---new kinds of computers and cameras and new ways of cleaning these manuscripts and digitalizing them so as to make these long neglected works available for the first time on line. Whereas these scholars had to go to Cairo and sit in the dusty attic where these documents were first discovered or else go to the many countries from Russia to England to America to the Vatican to Norway to France, and to Israel where some of them were stored, in order to study them, it will soon be possible to study them on line from wherever you may be.

And even more amazing: if the top half of a piece of paper had somehow gotten separate from the bottom half, and if one half ended up in Russia and the other half ended up in England, it is now possible for the specially designed computers to identify that they share the same handwriting, and that they come from the same author, and are really one piece of paper, and so they can be joined and studied. It is as if someone had created hundreds of jigsaw puzzles and mixed them up together, and then sent them to people all over the world, and challenged them to put their pieces together. And yet the work is being done slowly and systematically, by scholars who understand that this is by far the largest, and surely one of the most informative, collections of forgotten Jewish writings ever rediscovered.

Mark Glickman writes exuberantly, taking us along with him on an exciting journey from country to country, from library to library, explaining to us in simple language that you do not have to be a professional scholar to comprehend how rich this collection is, and how it opens up to us a whole world that we would otherwise know almost nothing about.

At the end of this fast moving and well written book, Mark Glickman raises the question of what does it all mean, what does this collection have to teach us, not only about the world of the Middle Ages, but about our own time.

He says it teaches four important spiritual and historical truths. The first is that, contrary to what we usually believe; the Jewish community of the Middle Ages was not as monolithic as we think it was. In fact, it was as fractured and as contentious as we are today. At least three groups co-existed side by side in Medieval Cairo: those who followed the Palestinian Talmud and accepted the authority of the Palestinian Sages, those who followed the Babylonian Talmud and accepted the authority of the Gaonim, and the Karaites , who disappeared eventually, but who at one time had real numbers and status. These three groups lived side by side, did business with each other, and debated with each other, according to the documents they left behind

The second truth the Genizah teaches is that there was a vibrant, vital, prosperous, Jewish community that existed a thousand years ago in Egypt of all places. This community had security, success, and Jewish knowledge, contrary to our stereotype that medieval Jewry was downtrodden, oppressed, and unenlightened.

The third truth that the Genizah teaches is that Arab-Jewish relations were not always as bad as they are today. Many of the Jews whose literary legacy is found in the Genizah wrote in Arabic as well as in Hebrew, and they learned from, as well as taught, the people around them. The Hebrew language developed its grammar on the model of the Arabic language. The revival of Hebrew in our time would not have been possible without the help rendered to it by Arabic a thousand years ago. Arabic itself was a Jewish language, and, unlike Latin in Europe, was employed by Jews for all secular and religious purposes, except for the synagogue service.

The fourth, and perhaps the greatest lesson in the Genizah, is the holiness of writing. In this age of computers with their instant delete buttons, it is hard to understand but there is really something awesome about the power of writing. As Glickman puts it: “Pen touches paper and moves across its surface, and leaves a trail of ink behind. And that trail forms letters, the letters form words, the words become sentences, and the sentences convey thoughts. The written word can go from mind to mind, from heart to heart, from continent to continent. At some level, we still know this. This is why we cherish old love letters, graduation certificates, and family albums. They enable us to connect ourselves to the past and to bind ourselves, if only fleetingly, to the souls of others.”

So this is a book for all who like exciting stories. It is at least as fast moving and as adventurous as anything in Indiana Jones. It is a book for anyone who likes history, for it tells the fascinating story of the treasures that were found in a synagogue attic more than a century ago, and what it has taught us about a nearly forgotten community that lived in the Middle Ages. And it is a book for all who appreciate the shards of history, and the wonder of what communities leave behind to instruct us about themselves with.

For all these reasons, and more, I heartily recommend this informative and exciting book.

Rabbi Jack Riemer is a frequent reviewer for this journal and for many other journals of Jewish Thought in America and abroad.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Genizah Update #28"One of the Best Jewish Books of 2010”

December 23, 2010

Dear Friends,

Greetings! I hope this email finds you well. I have several exciting book-related news items to share with you:

KUDOSWaking up and doing my early morning email-check today, I was delighted to learn that Jewish Ideas Daily named my book, Sacred Treasure: The Cairo Genizah, one of the best Jewish books of 2010. In fact, my book is the eighth one on the list…but maybe that’s just because it’s alphabetical. As you can see if you follow the link below, Sacred Treasure is in very good company on this list; seeing it there was a real thrill and a great honor.

GENIZAH FUND DONATIONSNow that my book has been completed, I’ve closed the account holding the generous donations that many of you provided. Fortunately, the leftover funds allowed me to make $1,000 donations to two important Genizah institutions:

• The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University LibraryAs you may know, the Cambridge University Library holds the largest collection of Genizah manuscripts – indeed, the largest collection of Jewish manuscripts of any kind – in the world. Included in their holdings is the Mosseri Genizah Collection, a trove of 7,000 manuscripts removed from the Genizah in the early 20th century and held in a trunk in the Mosseri family home until 2006. Conservators are unpacking and processing these documents at a rate of six or so per day – it’s a huge job. This donation will support the Genizah unit in their important work with this collection. You can learn more about it at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/jmgc/.

• The Jewish Theological Seminary of AmericaJTS holds the worlds-second largest collection of Genizah manuscripts – about 35,000 of them. The Seminary acquired most of these treasures in the 1920’s from a collector named Elkan Nathan Adler. Adler had preserved the documents in clear plastic sleeves made of PVC – the same stuff they make water pipes from today. At the time, this was considered the latest and greatest way to preserve old manuscripts, but since then we’ve learned that PVC contains acids and other compounds which slowly eat away at the documents with which they come into contact. Knowing this, conservators now need to remove the documents from their PVC sleeves, and store them instead in sleeves made out of Melinex. Melinex is pop-bottle plastic, and it never degrades. Of course, such a project will be costly, but I’ve earmarked our donation for this specific purpose, and it’s nice to know that it will play an important role in preserving the priceless JTS Genizah treasures.

After they are aired, both programs should be available online and on iTunes.

PHOTO ABOVEThe photograph atop this email comes to me courtesy of my friend, Dr. Ben Outhwaite, director of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge. It is not “PhotoShopped.” Rather, this is a real picture of a real copy of my book sitting amongst real manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah. The two words below and to the left of the book are, “haadhihi al-kuraasa,” which is Judeo-Arabic for “this book.”

REVIEWSMany thanks to those of you who have posted reviews of my book on Amazon. If you enjoyed the book, have not yet reviewed it, and are so inclined, please feel free to do so at your earliest convenience. These reviews are enormously helpful in getting the word out about the book.

Speaking of reviews, I have attached one from Rabbi Jack Riemer that I thought you might enjoy reading. It was published in the South Florida Jewish Journal

THE GIFT OF A SACRED TREASURE

It’s still not too late to get a copy of Sacred Treasure as a belated Chanukah or Christmas gift…or as a very early one for next year. If you’re interested in purchasing a signed copy from me, please contact me or consult previous Genizah Updates for details.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

As you can see, I have still have an active schedule of Genizah talks, including an upcoming talk on Monday, January 13, 7:00 PM, at Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, Seattle. If you would me to come speak to your group, please contact me at your convenience.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Genizah Update #27

The Gift of a Sacred Treasure

November 29, 2010

Hello Everybody,

Just a brief update this time, with some post-Thanksgiving details about Sacred Treasure.

REVIEWSThe reviews of Sacred Treasure: The Cairo Genizah continue to come in, and so far, no negative comments have appeared – at least none that I’ve noticed. You can see some of them at the links below, and a few more will likely appear in national publications during the next several weeks.• http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Treasure-Cairo-Genizah-Discoveries/dp/1580234313/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281233587&sr=8-1• http://www.nwbooklovers.org/2010/11/16/sacred-treasure-of-the-cairo-genizah/• http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2010/nov/27/pages-plenty-20101127/?subscriber/features

A REQUESTIf you read and enjoyed the book, it would be enormously helpful if you would consider posting a review on Amazon. Such feedback is crucial to help raise awareness of this book and the story it tells.

A BESTSELLER!Each Sunday, the Seattle Times book section selects a local bookstore and lists their recent bestsellers. Yesterday’s edition listed those of Eagle Harbor Book Company, on Bainbridge Island Washington, and Sacred Treasure came in at number three! The good news is that it outsold the #4 book, Of Thee I Sing, by Barack Obama. The bad news is that it still hasn’t caught up to the #2 book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. To be behind a Wimp but ahead of the president of the United States is a position I will accept with pride.

SPEAKING DATES AVAILABLEAs you can see below, I have an active speaking calendar during the next several months. I still have time-slots available, however, so please feel free to impose upon your church, synagogue, civic organization, school, etc. to have them contact me to come speak. I speak to groups of all ages, and love any opportunity I have to share the Genizah story.

THE GIFT OF A SACRED TREASUREIf you are looking for that special gift to give that special someone for Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, a birthday, anniversary, or International Human Rights Day (coming soon on December 10), I’m sure you’ll agree that nothing could possibly say “Happy______” better than Sacred Treasure. You can probably get the best deal from Amazon or another online retailer, but if you order it from me, I’ll sign it myself send it right to your doorstep or to whatever other doorstep you want me to send it.